BAIDOA, Somalia – Ethiopian troops moved into a second Somali town on Saturday to protect the country’s weak, U.N.-backed government, angering the Islamic militia that controls most of Somalia and causing peace talks to collapse.
About 200 Ethiopian troops, driving in pickup trucks mounted with machine guns, moved into Wajid and took control of the airport, meeting no resistance, witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals. Ethiopian troops first moved into Baidoa, 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu, on Thursday to protect the government.
Arab League talks in Sudan on Saturday were supposed to ease the situation in Somalia, where the Islamist militia captured the capital, Mogadishu, from government-allied warlords and then consolidated its control over most of southern Somalia. Both sides signed a temporary cease-fire agreement June 22 and the Islamists formally recognized the government.
But the Islamists walked out of the talks because of the Ethiopian incursion, and the government said it would not attend until it received international guarantees that any agreement would be respected.
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